What might be called the book's "thesis statement" is given on page 2, the second page of the prologue: "If good software can be written and given away like this, who needs Microsoft or companies like it?", and I echo the sentiment. 20 years later and Micros**t is still haunting our lives. Why? Why are people so dependent, Stockholm syndrome style, on Windows and its pay-to-play ecosystem?

Let me be more direct: if I, a college student, can find time to create open source software, and come up with a way to get paid for my work in spite of that, why can't everyone? You have to be really uncreative you if you can't find a way to get paid for your time and effort without locking *all the value* behind a pay wall and keeping the source code repository (for which I presume you're not using GIT because open-source software is clearly the work of the devil right?) in a secure vault underneath your office, in my humble-yet-disdainful opinion.
all this said, I will give Micros**t some credit: Although they are still by and large closed source especially when it comes to Windows and its immediate ecosystem, it does seem like they are starting to recognize the value of sharing code, at least inasmuch as it helps them get bugs fixed faster! Case in point: DOTNET's github repositories